Popcorn For The People and its autism fight goes national
The enterprise, which started with a small East Brunswick location, is launching a new online retail store
- About 90 percent of adults with autism, which makes up about 1.5 million individuals in the U.S., are either unemployed or underemployed
- Popcorn For The People provides employment to people with autism and other developmental disabilities
- The goal is to develop a unique training plan for each adult on the autism spectrum, so he or she can achieve independence at work
- The nonprofit enterprise is finding support from a variety of community partners, including Rutgers University
In an effort to help end unemployment and underemployment that they say plagues the autism population in the United States, Dr. Barbie Zimmerman-Bier and husband Dr. Steven Bier are taking their popular Popcorn For The People brand nationwide through a new online retail store and with the help of a new manufacturing facility.
The online division is an extension of Popcorn For The People Café in East Brunswick, formerly known as Pop in Café. That enterprise opened in 2015 in the Brunswick Square Mall.
“What many people don’t realize is that about 90 percent of adults with autism, which makes up about 1.5 million individuals in the U.S., are either unemployed or underemployed,” said Dr. Steven Bier, co-founder of Popcorn for the People. “We started Popcorn For The People to help Sam, our 24-year-old son who has autism, find a job that gives him great pride and purpose. It began as a local café, and we quickly discovered that people loved our popcorn, the mission, and supporting us, so we’ve decided to bring Popcorn For The People to the people and expand our reach nationwide.”
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The company provides employment to people with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Popcorn For The People Café, a charitable project of the 501(c)(3) Let’s Work For Good, is a nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to provide meaningful and lasting employment for adults with autism.
Popcorn For The People has a specific vision:
To create a sustainable business to train and hire workers with autism for many years to come and to promote a world where people with autism and other disabilities are celebrated and enjoy meaningful work.
Create something that never has been done before: Have our store be a “safe house” or “sanctuary store” meaning that any previous employee or intern can come back for further training if they have difficulty in the future at other jobs.
Popcorn For The People Café provides training and employment opportunities for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the areas of cooking and packaging popcorn, preparation of deli-style sandwiches, order fulfillment, distribution and sales, while also offering a variety of artisanal popcorns, drinks and snacks to patrons. The goal is to develop a unique training plan for each adult with ASD, so he or she can achieve independence at work.
Autism by the numbers
According to Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism, (www.afaa-us.org/core-issues/employment), there are 1.5 million individuals with autism in the United States, 80 percent of which are under the age of 22.
Let’s Work For Good believes work is an integral part of adult life and individuals with autism have the ability and desire to work. Yet national research highlights the disappointing employment outcomes for this group. There is an urgent need to improve and expand work opportunities for the increasing numbers of adults with autism, according to the Biers.
The doctors opened the business in 2015, with assistance from Agnes Cushing-Ruby, a local chef and mother of a child with autism, who helped create the flavors. Sam Bier then cooked the popcorn. As demand for the product grew, Popcorn For The People was able to hire more people with developmental disabilities. It now provides more than 30 people with meaningful work and valuable experience in the “real world.”
Popcorn For The People’s East Brunswick retail location has received a name change to coincide with the national launch of the brand. What was founded as Pop In Café now is called Popcorn For The People Café. It sells all the flavors that are available online and is open seven days a week. Popcorn For The People has 14 different flavors, including: classic butter salt and cheddar cheese to special creations such as X-Treme Caramel & Chocolate and the Girl Scout inspired Thin Mint. The popcorn comes in four tins, ranging from 1 gallon up to 6.5 gallons. Each tin can have a mix of up to three flavors.
One-hundred percent of all profits go to this organization, which then funds projects to help adults with autism and other developmental disabilities find satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment and steady employment.
The company’s motto: "Eat well … Do Good!" is an expression of what motivates the people behind this effort.
“We started Let's Work For Good ... because we were motivated by the difficult situation that faced our son ... others like him with autism," Steven Bier said. “Unemployment and underemployment is rampant is the autism community, with unemployment rates greater than 50 percent.”
But why did the Biers choose a popcorn business?
“We see popcorn production as a process that has many components ranging from simple to complex skills, so it would offer job and learning opportunities to disabled workers ranging from high- to low-functioning workers,” Bier said. “It is also safe to make, never goes out of season and popular across the country. We also saw that there was an opportunity in the marketplace for a handcrafted, gourmet popcorn brand whose products are made by kids on the autism spectrum.”
“The idea is to have handcrafted flavors that allow the participation of workers with varying skill levels,” explained Cushing-Ruby, the head chef. “The workers melt white chocolate in fondue pots, pour it over our popcorn and cover it with smashed Oreo Cookies to create a Cookies & Cream Popcorn. They melt Dark Belgian Chocolate, pour it over our popcorn and infuse real Italian Espresso to make Dark Chocolate Espresso Popcorn.”
Positive attention
This effort has attracted the attention of many people, some of whom have contributed to the continuing a growing success of the effort.
“We started with just Samuel and now have about 10 disabled workers, as well as several interns and three high schools with students at the store for job training and job sampling,” Steven Bier said. “Our biggest success is that we branded a product for national sales, created the first ever national product brand made by autistic workers. Our website popcornforthepeople.com ships popcorn across the country.
“We have been so fortunate to have received the support of many individuals and organizations, such as Frank Greek Realty, who donated the space we are using to build out our commercial kitchen, where we will make popcorn for the store as well as the online orders we receive," he added. "New White Electric Co. was gracious and donated power supply for our new commercial kitchen operation. Barry Segal at Focus For Health Foundation has been a huge supporter of ours. Paul Davis Emergency Services of Monroe Township has donated transportation support to us so that we can efficiently get our popcorn to the store and around to the various events that we do around the community. The parents of many of the individuals we work with have also been amazing, and donated so much time and support.”
The new manufacturing facility, which now is in the development phase, is making national expansion a reality.
“We talked to Frank Greek about our vision. We are so fortunate that our community has members like him who care. He graciously donated the space that we are setting up for our commercial kitchen,” Bier said, adding: “Our dream is to employ more individuals with autism as we grow locally, and to open more stores around the country so that we can help other communities with autism around the country.”
What absolutely is critical is the skills this business is providing to a special-needs population.
“These workers have a lifelong condition. As they progress through our operation, they can learn everything from the responsibility of showing up on time for their job, to food service skills-taking orders and putting the orders together, to light-cooking skills including following recipes, to organizational skills, to social skills and dealing with the public,” Bier noted. “There just aren’t many programs that teach these sorts of things in a real-world environment, with all that entails. These are skills that the kids can use here, and elsewhere. And, if they do progress beyond our store, we offer a safe harbor for them to come back to if something happens once they are on their own.”
Popcorn For The People Cafe also helps prepare for the real world by providing a real world atmosphere. It keeps a mix of neurotypical workers and disabled workers. So in that environment, workers learn not only standard job skills, but also workplace-based socialization, what the company calls “watercooler life skills.”
One such success story is Aaron.
“Aaron lived in a group home. He was lonely and bored. He came to work for us and was shy and quiet,” Steven Bier recalled. “After a few months, he and a group of neurotypical workers took a pizza break and were discussing video games. Suddenly Aaron jumped in and starting talking about the games. After that he was no longer quiet. He told us: “I come to work not only for the work, but to beat back the loneliness. I love this place.”
Sam Bier previously worked at supermarkets bagging groceries. He wanted to work on the cash register but never was properly taught to do it. At the Popcorn For The People Cafe, he was able to have one-on-one instruction. He now not only works the cash register, but also inputs new products and price changes.
Popcorn For The People also is also benefiting from a partnership with Rutgers University.
The Biers approached Senior Associate Dean of the School of Business Martin Markowitz to discuss an association.
Rutgers now is involved through its branch of Enactus, an international nonprofit that helps other nonprofits become self-sustaining. Rutgers students work pro bono so that they can learn real-world skills while doing good in the community. At present Popcorn For The People has about 15 students involved in different facets of the operation, from finance, to supply chain to sales and marketing.
As the holiday season has arrived, Popcorn For The People also has a “corporate gift program with a social conscience.” soliciting corporate relationships.
Every tin ordered means more employment for a disabled worker, and every tin comes with a card signed by the worker who made the popcorn for that tin.
To place an order, log on to popcornforthepeople.com or for corporate or large orders, cal 201-621-2245.
Jay Jefferson Cooke is columnist/senior reporter for the Courier News, Home News Tribune and MyCentralJersey.com. Phone him at 908-243-6603; email: jcooke@gannettnj.com or write to: 92 E. Main St., Somerville, NJ 08876. All correspondence is “on the record” and subject to publication. Twitter: @JayJCookeCNHNT. Facebook: www.facebook.com/jayjefferson.cooke